Vancouver

This Cafe Dedicated Entirely to Tiramisu, Please

Restaurant Porn is a regular column of daydreams presented as a means to introduce Vancouver diners and designers to concepts, looks, and fully-formed ideas that they might draw an inkling of inspiration from. We do our best to pair the foreign rooms with local addresses so as to let everyone in on the fantasy.

(via) Sometimes I’ll take a bite of something that makes me think that an entire restaurant should be dedicated to the purpose of perfecting it. Sometimes it’s risotto. Occasionally it’s schnitzel. Once it was skate wing. Seldom, however, is it something sweet…

WHAT IT IS: ORO Tiramisu is a single purpose. 592 sqft cafe that focuses squarely on – you guessed it – the coffee-flavoured, highly aromatic delight that is tiramisu (translates as “pick me up” from the original Italian).

Designed by Nong Studio, ORO doesn’t blend modern and classic styles but sets them right to each other in stark (but somehow harmonious) contrast. The visible divide is quite stunning, actually.

The interior’s myriad surfaces – velvet, marble, wood, gold, mirror – exude the sort of over-the-top decadence we associate with the dessert while also harkening back to its country of origin, as with the near-psychedelic wallpaper depicting Milan’s 1877 shopping mall, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. Of course tiramisu was invented in the 1960s in Treviso, but still…how cool is that?

WHERE IT IS: The ground floor of a corner address in what used to be the French Concession in Shanghai, China.

WHERE WE WISH IT WAS: It feels like it should exist somewhere on the periphery of Yaletown, perhaps on Homer Street. Pick a corner and I’ll see you there!